(Originally appeared in Mutant Renegade Zine #11, Summer 1999) I first became aware of Erica Lopez when I picked-up her novel, Flaming Iguanas, which tells the story of Tomato Rodriguez And her cross-country motorcycle adventures. The combination of text, line...

(Originally appeared in Mutant Renegade Zine #11, Summer 1999) Syd is the singer for the Dayton band Morella’s Forest. Morella’s Forest has been described as everything from shoe gazing noise pop to candy pop with a new wave quirkiness to an undulating...

(Originally appeared in Mutant Renegade Zine #11, Summer 1999) I first heard of Lauren Hoffman in a subtle way. A year or two ago Wendy at Virgin sent me a slew of CD’s to review and one of the better ones was Megiddo by Lauren Hoffman. I liked the music, gave...

V/A – Matrix – CD (Maverick Records / WB) Yes, it’s that new Keanu movie. From what I heard it’s carried by Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss and is actually a great movie. Most of the music on the soundtrack was familiar to me with one exception....

V/A – Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels – CD (Maverick Records / WB) I have heard this movie described as a combination of Pulp Fiction and Trainspotting. The movie soundtrack seems to lean more toward that of Pulp Fiction, but isn’t as strong....

V/A – Forces of Nature – CD (Dreamworks Records) A soundtrack full of pop-poop. I can actually remember when U2 use to be cool and not some musical whore. The many covers on this release are horrible. There are a few standouts like Tricky’s Slowly,...

Alessio Vlad – Besieged – CD (Milan Records / BMG) This soundtrack is wonderful. The premise behind the movies is the coming together of two people from totally different cultures. This soundtrack brilliantly reflects that in its interweaving of Classical...

Marc Shaiman – The Out-of-Towners – CD (Milan Records / BMG) This release starts out with one of those cheesy duets that I hate. Even though the rest of the c.d. is speckled with a few decent tunes, I wouldn’t recommend this release. - Mite Mutant...

Nicola Piovani – Life is Beautiful – CD (Virgin Records) What a great soundtrack to a great movie. The music in this soundtrack is highly emotional and full of life. The music is classical and is one of the few orchestral music soundtracks that I am...

Elmer Bernstein – The Deep End of the Ocean – CD (Milan Records / BMG) It seems fitting that I get to review a movie with Treat Williams in it for the Sell-out issue. He was the lovable lead hippie in the movie “Hair”. Ever since then I have...

V/A – This Ain’t Rocket Science – CD (Cheetah’s Records) This is a really cool comp of West Coast hardcore. There’s a mix of old school thrash, a little Glam-trash, garage rock, and even some more ambitious and strange stuff. Turn this...

V/A – Swing Sucks – CD (Liberation Records) This is another swing compilation. Most of these bands have the traditional swing sound from days gone by. Most focus on the standard themes: Dames, Drinks, Dinero and Drugs. Bands featured on this compilation...